| Sources |
- [S7145] The Bowkers of Tharfield, Ivan and Raymond Mitford-Barberton, (Oxford 1952).
Miles Bowker was head of the Bowker party that left Portsmouth, England, aboard the Weymouth sometime during December 1819 or January 1820. The Weymouth arrived in Cape Town during March/April 1820, and then sailed to Port Elizabeth, arriving there after 10th April 1820. Sometime during May or June, the Bowker party left Algoa Bay. Their route crossed over the Koega and Zwartkops rivers near the coast, and then inland over Grass Ridge to the Addo Drift, across the Sundays River about 20 miles from it's mouth, and then over the Addo Heights. From this point the route took a south-easterly direction, more or less parallel to the coast, passing Congo's Kraal and Graafwater, to Jager's Drift on the Bushmans River. After passing the mission station at Theopolis, they forded the Kowie river at it's mouth at low tide, by utilising two exposed sandbanks. This trip took about 8 days to complete, and was led by Petrus Oosthuizen, who became a great friend of Miles Bowker. Two of Miles's sons married Petrus' daughters. The Bowker party of 23 consisted of: Miles, wife Ann Maria, sons William Monkhouse B., Miles Brabbin, Thomas Holden, Robert Mitford, Septimus, Octavius, and daughters Mary Elizabeth and Anna Maria; Henry Adams, G Austen, Charles Besant, G.Hooks Down, John Hayter, William Ingram, Richard Limes, John Stanford and his wife Maria, son John and daughters Letitia, Jane and Sophia. The other two Bowker sons, John Mitford and Bertram Egerton, joined the family in 1922, and the last son, James Henry, was born at Tharfield. . The Bowker family were allocated the land known as Tharfield, on the KleinMonden River, north of Port Kowie (Port Alfred).
Miles, together with Major Pigot and J. Dyason tried to develop Port Kowie as a harbour in 1821. He
was appointed as a Heemraad (judicial assessor) to assist the deputy magistrate, Major Jones, at
Grahamstown in 1821, but Lord Somerset dismissed Major Jones and the heemraad in 1822. . Interested
in botany, he was sending indigenous bulbs from the Lower Albany area to the Government Secretary as
early as 1826. He was also a pioneer in establishing the wool industry in the Eastern Cape, in 1826,
with merino sheep.
Miles Bowker, a Wiltshire farmer, led a party on the Weymouth. They settled on the right bank of the
Gorge River and called it Olive Burn. He came out with his wife and 8 children and one was born while
lying at anchor in Table Bay.
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1765 - 1839 (74 years)
